This invention relates to a slow descender, especially to a slow descender which is suitable for use by people for the purpose of descending from a height.
In case of a fire in a high-storied building, up to this time, people often were burned to death by flames, suffocated to death by smoke or they leaped to death from the building.
Even in a building equipped with an emergency staircase, it does not always follow that all the people can successfully escape from fire. Moreover, although equipment such as relief bags, rope ladders and so on, have been proposed for use, they are not suitable for use in high-storied buildings.
A slow descender enables men to descend from a height safely and, thus, it can act as a useful safety device. However, slow descenders which have been heretofore proposed have many defects. For example, the descending speed thereof sometimes exceeds the safe speed, the rope is apt to be soon worn and torn, and two or more persons cannot descend simultaneously.
Specifically, it is difficult or impossible that the slow descenders heretofore proposed are satisfactory in emergency circumstances.